Currently in Fort Lauderdale, the Olympic champion Léon Marchand will have a program loaded on the night of Friday to Saturday, with two finals on the program.
The program of the evening will be responsible for Léon Marchand in Fort Lauderdale. After having barely passed in the 200m NL final (8th time of the 1’48 “05 series), the quadruple Olympic champion qualified without forcing for the final of his favorite race, the 400m 4n. The Toulousain achieved the second time of the series in 4’21” 04C. The American Bobby Finke, a double Olympic champion of the 1500m, was the fastest in the previous series in 4’20 “34.
Questioned by the media present in Fort Lauderdale, Bob Bowman, the coach of Léon Marchand, tempered long -term expectations on the 200m NL for French. “The expectations for Léon on the 200m nl? Let him be good enough to help France on the 4x200m relay” launched the coach with a smile, Cap “Texas Longhorns” on the head in a video on the Specialized American Site SWIMSWAM. Bowman returned to the performance of his swimmer on the 400m NL on Thursday. “The times are pretty good, assures the former mentor of Michael Phelps who confirms that Marchand does not arrive in Florida at the top of his form. He made huge technical errors which must be corrected. The turns in the final were terrible and the outings of flows were not very good. So there are things that he can improve but the effort and the covers are pretty good.”
Work will be done on both distances in the coming months
And there too to temper expectations and curiosity around this new test for Toulousain. “I think he wants to do different things and that is what he did, he had fun and it was not so bad. Is he competitive at the highest world level, no. And we will have to discuss where it can lead us. But I think it’s good for him to do different things.”
Léon Marchand who will continue to work on these two new events in the coming months. “I think he needs that,” continues Bowman. He can’t do the same thing with three or four races again and again. So he will certainly do different shopping. ” The 200m NL final is scheduled for 00:10 am French time and the 400m 4N at the end of the program around 1:30 am.
